ISO 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[September, 



miserable concern indeed if it bring no new 

 and progressive ideas into the community. 

 And it is not too much to say that a wide 

 awake society is a power for improvement 

 whose scope is not easily measured. The fol- 

 lowing remark was made the other day by a 

 breeder at the close of a neighboring exhibi- 

 tion: "At the opening of this Fair, ten years 

 ago, comparatively few of our people were in- 

 terested in the production of good stock, and 

 the idea of registering anything grown here 

 was an almost entirely new one. Now we 

 have as good stock as is to be found any- 

 where." And he reasonably attributed the 

 change in part to the influences of the 

 fair. The developing influences of these ex- 

 hibitions operate in many ways. They (1) 

 give the people a chance to see what good 

 stock is like, and to compare it with the aver- 

 age scrubs with which so many parts of the 

 country abound. (2) They stimulate that 

 feeling of pride which prompts every live man 

 to desire to possess as good as the best. (3) 

 They furnish an opportunity for those dis- 

 posed to improve to compare breeds and make 

 such selections as they may deem best suited 

 to their wants. (4) The premiums and com- 

 petition have a general awakening influence 

 the effect of which is most wholesome in any 

 community. For these and other reasons, 

 such as the acquaintance which farmers thus 

 make with improved machinery, and the stim- 

 ulus given to high-class vegetable and cereal 

 production, the fair is a good thing, and no 

 good one should be allowed to die without ar- 

 rangements being made for something at least 

 equally good to succeed it." 



RECIPES. 



The recipes, from time to time published in 

 the columns of the Fakmbr, as well as those 

 published in other journals, are, no doubt, 

 all of them, excellent in their way — indeed in 

 reading over the various compounds we feel 

 that many of them at least, are very good- 

 hut, at the same time, we cannot resist the 

 notion that a large number of them are entire- 

 ly impracticable so far as they relate to the 

 wants of small families, and especially the 

 poor. For instance, some days ago we read 

 in the domestic column of a "family paper," 

 a recipe to prepare stuffed egg plants, com- 

 mencing in this wise : "Take six egg plants," 

 &c., &c., without any qualification whatever 

 in regard to the size of the egg plants. An 

 hour before we had passed along the North- 

 ern Market and saw four egg plants which 

 completely filled a bushel basket. Six of those 

 stuffed would have made an ample "Fourth 

 of July Dinner" for twenty men. What is 

 the use of enumerating such an indefinite 

 quantity, seeing that egg plants in our mar- 

 kets vary in size from a common goose egg all 

 the way up to a twenty-five cent watermelon. 

 On another occasion one of these domestic 

 recipes commenced thus: "Take five pounds 

 of the very best beef," &c., &c. Now, only 

 about one family in a hundred can afford to 

 buy the very best heef, and a less number still 

 ca.u afford five pounds, for any purpose, at a 

 single meal. True, it may be said that any one 

 at all gifted with conceptions of mathematical 

 proportions can for tliemselves reduce num- 

 bers, weights and quantities, so as to bring 

 them within the amounts specifically required, 

 but there are a great many who are not so 

 gifted, and these would be very apt to discard 

 the whole batch of domestic receipcs with 

 disgust. Information of this kind should be 

 adapted to the wants and the abilities of the 

 masses and on the plane of domestic economy. 

 It is easier for the affluent to increase the 



quantity and quality of ingredients in culin- 

 ary preparations, than for the indigent to 

 diminish them in their proper proportions. 

 There are many "Cook Books" in the world, 

 but there are very few of them that are adapt- 

 ed to the general wants of the people, and it 

 is they that form a cordon of protection and 

 support around the circles of communities. 

 States and Nations. We still need an econ- 

 omical Cook-book for the million — something 

 to devise nutritious ten or fifteen cent dinners 

 for the people. 



'INSECT PESTS." 



Our venerable correspondent, or contributor, 

 ,J. B. G., of Columbia, seems to have been 

 the special victim of " insect pests " during 

 the present season, and from the proceedings 

 of the September meeting of the Agricultural 

 and Horticultural Society, it will be perceived 

 that one or more of its members makes a 

 somewhat doleful report of the ravages of the 

 ''Colorado potato-beetle." We confess that 

 we are not greatly surprised at this, for in 

 each case there is an implied acknowledge- 

 ment that there has been a relaxation of that 

 "eternal vigilance" which is alone "the 

 price of liberty," or an immunity from the 

 depredations of insect pests. 



Every intelligent and vigilant farmer knows 

 exactly ivhat to do in order to forestall the 

 potato-beetle, and also ivhen to do it. If he 

 neglects this, then the consequences must fall 

 upon his own head. From the antecedents of 

 this insect (with which every intelligent farmer 

 ought to be tolerably well acquainted by this 

 time) if undisturbed in its destructive pere- 

 grinations, there Is little prospect of its dying 

 out, or becoming obsolete. We are admonished 

 in the sacred oracles that the poor we have 

 always with us, and thus that they are ever 

 the objects of our benevolent ministrations. 



In as emphatic a sense the potato-beetle, and 

 many other insect depredators, we have also 

 ever with us, and hence they should become 

 the objects of our most searching and unrelax- 

 ing vigilance. During the present season we 

 crushed a number of potato-beetles crawling 

 on the pavements in the very heart of Lancas- 

 ter city, whilst dozens of people passed and 

 repassed them without seeing them, or heed- 

 ing them, and it is very possible that many 

 fiirmers may look upon a single beetle as an 

 object too insignificant to elicit any special 

 attention, and, perhaps, be surprised, later in 

 the season, to find two or three hundred beetles, 

 or their larva, preying upon their potato 

 vines, possibly all the progeny of the single 

 beetle they may have neglected to destroy 

 earlier in the season. In the degree that the 

 fiirmer educates himself into the doctrine that 

 the potato-beetle has " come to stay," in that 

 degree will he continue to exercise his vigi- 

 lance in counteracting the beetle's destnictive 

 progress. It cannot be extinguished by the 

 omission of cultivating the potato, because it 

 is not a one-ideaed Insect, it can adapt itself to 

 other means of support than the potato alone. 



But to return to the lamentations of our 

 friend J. B. G., of course we can only infer 

 that the "insect pest," so injurious to his cur- 

 rant bushes and their fruit, is, or was the 

 larva of the "Imported Currant Saw-fly," 

 (Ne^naius ventricosus) and of course, also it is 

 too late to lock the stable door after the horse 



is stolen. His sin of omission was in not de- 

 stroying the few he noticed last year, as by 

 that means he might have prevented the 

 many he had this year, that is, provided it 

 really was the caterpillar of the imported Saw- 

 fly that ruined his currant crop, because, in 

 addition to the aforenamed, the larva; of the 

 "Native Currant Saw-fly," the "Ohio Currant 

 Saw-fly," also the "Currant Span-worm," the 

 "Spinous Currant Caterpillar," the "Currant 

 Angerona," the "Currant Amphidosis," the 

 Cecropin fmA the io, "Emperor Moths," the 

 "Banded Leaf-roller," the ".Saddle-back 

 Moth," the "Currant Endropia," and several 

 "Wooly Bears," according to Mr. Saunders 

 and others, have all been detected feeding on 

 the foliage of the currant and gooseberry, 

 althougli some of them rarely or in limited 

 numbers. 



And this is not all, for the canes themselves 

 are often infested by the "Imported Currant 

 Borer," the "American Currant Borer," the 

 "Currant Bark-louse," the "Five-striped 

 Plant-bug," the "Currant Plant-louse," the 

 "Oyster-shell Bark-louse," and the "Red Spi- 

 der." Whilst the fruit itself is often infested 

 by the "Currant Fruit Worm," the "Goose- 

 berry Fruit VVorm," the "Currant Fly," and 

 the "Gooseberry Midge," &c. VVe refrain 

 from mentioning the Scientific names of these 

 depredators, lest we " make confusion more 

 confounded." Amongst all these, perhaps, the 

 most destructive to the currant and the goose- 

 berry, is the imported Currant Saw-fly, of 

 which we have given the Scientific name 

 above. The coincidence is indeed singular 

 that imported insects are usually more pro- 

 lific and more destructive than representative 

 native species, indeed, more so than they are 

 in their native country. But the currant- 

 worm yields readily to an application of pow- 

 dered Hellebore, administered after a natural 

 or artificial shower, or in the morning while 

 the plants are covered with dew. Some pre- 

 fer a liquid application^ say an ounce of Hell- 

 ebore to a common pail of water. Hot water 

 not too hot to scald the plants, is also recom- 

 mended as an effective remedy if used plenti- 

 fully. A tablespoonful of carbolic acid in two 

 gallons of water, is said to prove as destruc- 

 tive to the currant-worm as hellebore. 



The green "cabbage worm" which our 

 friend complains of, is most likely the larva ot 

 the "Imported white cabbage butterfly," 

 {Pieris rapee) and this also, with proper vigi- 

 lance, may be nearly or quite exterminated by 

 the use of the remedies already mentioned, 

 although the experiences of some have demon- 

 strated that it does not yield as readily to 

 Hellebore as the currant worm does, hence 

 Paris green has been recommended. If a solid 

 head is developed there is little danger of the 

 poison penetrating it, for the case has been 

 satisfactorily tested by intelligent experi- 

 menters in this county ; moreover, as cabbage 

 continues to grow late in the fall, the rains 

 will have washed the poison off' before the 

 crop is gathered for use. But the parent 

 butterfly of tliis green worm is so well known, 

 that it perhaps would pay to hire boys to cap- 

 ture them early in the spring, when they only 

 appear in limited numbers ; thus resorting to 

 that "ounce of prevention " which is always 

 "worth a pound of cure." But, this worm 

 passes into the pupa form in the vicinity of 



